On a hot night in Cincinnati, the crowd were showing more nerves than the man on the mound. Homer Bailey walked on to the hill in the top of the ninth, relaxed, poised, doing his thing as he prepared to face the three San Francisco batters that stood between him and a second no-hitter. Fans at the Great American Ballpark were not doing their thing – cheering was muted amongst the cautious crowd, superstitiously seeking not to rock the boat, even with Bailey firing on all cylinders and the home team up 3-0.

By the time Gregor Blanco's ground ball to Todd Frazier at third base wound up in the hands of Joey Votto at first for the final out, the crowd had let go, and so did Bailey – celebrating in a mob of team-mates while being treated to the water cooler treatment and hugging manager Dusty Baker, who had missed his first no-hitter in 2012 while out of action with a stroke. Said Bailey after the game, in a television interview:

Every dog gets his day twice, I guess.

It was a dramatic turn for Bailey, who had been enduring a mini-slump for his Reds, winless in his last three starts with an ERA in those appearances of just under 6.00. Then the Giants came to town, the same San Francisco team that upended the Reds a season ago in the NLDS after Cincinnati blew a two-game advantage. The Reds stomped the champs 8-1 on Tuesday and on Wednesday, Bailey came out firing first, looking sharp, while Votto's sac fly in the bottom of the inning drove in a lead run that would prove to be all the 27-year-old Texan would need.

Bailey was perfect through six innings but in the seventh, Blanco drew a walk, becoming the first baserunner. The perfect game was history, Bailey was left to protect what he had. Blanco moved to second on a Marco Scutaro groundout, bringing Buster Posey to the plate. The Giants catcher hit a grounder to first base – Votto deked Blanco into going to third by glancing at Bailey, who was running to cover the bag at first. Votto fired to Frazier at the hot corner instead, applying the tag, nailing the sliding Blanco. Posey was on first – not on a hit, but a fielder's choice. The drama of the evening would continue.

Joey had a great heads-up play. I was almost a little late getting to the bag … Going into the eighth and ninth I thought why the hell not, here we go again.

In the ninth inning, Bailey had lost none of his force behind his blistering fastball despite eclipsing 100 pitches, hitting 97mph on the radar gun. Brandon Crawford began the frame by bouncing back to Bailey for the first out. Then Tony Abreu became strikeout number nine before Blanco bounced out on Bailey's 109th pitch, Frazier firing a bullet to Votto to retire the 28th and final batter of the night – just one over the minimum.

Bailey's no-hitter is the first in Major League Baseball this season and with a pair on no-nos, he joins Justin Verlander, Mark Buehrle and Roy Halladay as active pitchers with two to their name. Now Bailey gets a shot to at tying a record set by Cincinnati's own Johnny Vander Meer just a touch over 65 years ago. He'll face Seattle on Sunday, looking to throw a second consecutive no-hitter.